Al-Baqarah · Madani · ayah 171 of 286

Al-Baqarah 2:171

وَمَثَلُ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ كَمَثَلِ ٱلَّذِى يَنْعِقُ بِمَا لَا يَسْمَعُ إِلَّا دُعَآءً وَنِدَآءً ۚ صُمٌّۢ بُكْمٌ عُمْىٌ فَهُمْ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ

“The example of those who disbelieve is like that of one who shouts at what hears nothing but calls and cries [i.e., cattle or sheep] - deaf, dumb and blind, so they do not understand.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Like a flock that hears the shepherd's shout but not his words, those who refuse to listen hear revelation only as noise.

A reflection

Twenty years of the sound, none of the words

A man has played the same famous reciter in his car every morning for twenty years. He knows every rise and fall of the voice. He hums along. Ask him what any of those surahs say, and he cannot tell you.

The ayah draws a picture every Arab knew. A shepherd shouts at his flock, yanʿiqu. The sheep turn at the sound. They do not understand a word. On this root the classical lexicons agree. It names a sound, and above all the shepherd's cry as he calls and drives his sheep and goats. The narration-based commentaries record a long line of the earliest authorities reading the parable this way. The flock hears the voice and grasps nothing of the words. One early report gives the plainest example. Say 'eat' to a camel, a donkey or a sheep. It hears your voice and knows nothing of what you mean.

A linguist among the commentators describes what such listeners take in. They hear 'the ring of the tone and the boom of the voice', with no mind turned towards it.

The ayah was first about those who rejected the Prophet ﷺ. But the picture is uncomfortable for believers too. It is possible to hear the Quran every day as sound. Beautiful sound, moving sound, but sound. The melody reaches us and the meaning does not.

This is not a call to stop enjoying recitation. The beauty is real. It is a call to go one step further. Take one passage you hear often and learn what it says. Let a single ayah become words rather than tune.

The man in the car could start tomorrow. Twenty years of listening is not wasted. It is a field ploughed and waiting for seed.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.